Question about Congress

[BeTheChange]

From the UK so the US political system is a bit confusing from across the pond.

I don't understand how the Republicans can control Congress by such a majority and yet be unelectable in a Presidential election. Surely the same people voting Republicans to Congress would vote the same way? Why is this not the case?

 

[Tictac]

From the UK so the US political system is a bit confusing from across the pond.

I don't understand how the Republicans can control Congress by such a majority and yet be unelectable in a Presidential election. Surely the same people voting Republicans to Congress would vote the same way? Why is this not the case?

The President and Vice-President are elected via nationwide voting and then by the Electoral College where various states have slightly different rules on how appointed electors cast their votes.

Senatorial elections are at the state level. Members of the House of Representatives are elected in Congressional Districts defined at the state level.

So the President is elected nationally, Senators state-by-state and Representatives district-by-district.

 

[hanni]

we are a HUGE country, 300 million people, 5 million square miles of territory, lots of different ideas and those ideas change.

 

[Maximus Rex]

From the UK so the US political system is a bit confusing from across the pond.

I don't understand how the Republicans can control Congress by such a majority and yet be unelectable in a Presidential election. Surely the same people voting Republicans to Congress would vote the same way? Why is this not the case?

In the rest of the world, the party that controls the legislative branch, assumes control of the executive branch. In the U.S., it isn't set up like that due to the system of checks and balances that the Founding Fathers put into place when they drafted the Constitution. The election for President and Congress are two separate elections.

 

[Bible_Belt]

The US is two countries, the red states and the blue states. It is a cultural divide.

Red States:
Obama is a Muslim devil
Pro-Gun
Pro-religion
Anti-Immigrant
Republican

For the blue states, reverse all of those viewpoints. Obama is a nice guy who tries hard.

I live in Illinois. Geographically, it is mostly a red state, but the population density in Chicago is what makes it blue on the map. That's similar to the US as a whole. The electoral college rewards areas of dense population, as does the allocation of seats per state within the US House of Representatives.

That red and blue map is not too far off from the way that the country divided in the US Civil War, 155 or so years ago.

 

[hanni]

except that most of the states didn't exist in 1860. In fact, most people had never even heard of them as territories. But also, half of the kids today can't identify half of them on a map.